THE CORINTHIAN COLUMN: Sonata

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Sonata

Coming home is nice too.

14 comments:

Parnassus said...: Beautiful photos. It is hard to capture those differently lit areas, the dark city twinkling with lights, contrasted with the brilliant lit balcony, which in turn looks welcoming and inviting.; January 27, 2013 at 9:20 PM
columnist said...: Thank you! I'm always amazed how going away makes you realise how nice it is to be home. Which is a good enough excuse to have a break.; January 27, 2013 at 11:21 PM
Hippo said...: Coming home to one's own space is always nice but you would be hard pressed to get me higher than the third floor, never mind onto a balcony with such, albeit stunning, but nevertheless terrifying views of the city.

That's why I signed up for the infantry. It requires more than a special effort to hurt one's self falling out of a trench.

Yes, I was a bomb disposal officer and then a humanitarian mine clearance specialist but I am shit scared of heights.

If ever I am lucky enough to enjoy a drink together with you, it will be in the lobby or in some street level dive. Better still, some art gallery substantially built on terra firma.; January 28, 2013 at 12:13 AM
columnist said...: I don't suffer from vertigo, but there is a bar in the hotel next door called appropriately enough "Vertigo", and as it's one where I do feel a sense of unease:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75aDVE_IIAo

so obviously we'd not go there for a drink!. Actually from about half way through there are no people there, so I wonder if they jumped? At 3.51 you can see the park, (Lumpini), where we take our Sunday constitutional.; January 28, 2013 at 11:15 AM
Hippo said...: It looks wonderful, Sir of the Column. At first I understood your reference to me seeing Lumpini at 3.51 as the time of day (night) by which you finally managed to peel my eyes open. Then I realized it was a point on the video’s timeline. Sadly, I think that at 0.57 I would have noticed that sign and availed myself of the facility it announced.

At least the cameraman had the decency not to point his camera over the parapet, aim it straight down at the teeming streets below and rapidly zoom in. The final shot, assuming the contents of the glass were neat, would be exactly what I would need but I shudder to use the term, ‘ to down it in one’.

In a futile effort to conquer my fear of heights I bungie jumped off Victoria Falls bridge, a mere 109 metres above the Zambezi with a spectacular view of the gorge and the Vic Falls Hotel, a magnificent and historic edifice I calculated my shattered body would be washing by on its way to Moçambique about a minute after I jumped. Realising I was very likely to bottle in front of my deliciously charming companion to whom I had rather high hopes of demonstrating a more sensual way of going down, I asked the jumpmaster (ex RSM in the South African Army) if he could be so kind and give his instructions to jump as parade ground orders rather than the effete, ‘Bungie One! Bungie Two! Bungie THREE!’. True to his word he yelled out, ‘Gowans, ‘SHUN!!’, ‘One pace step forward, MARCH!’ It was a small step for Mankind but a giant leap for me and not one I care to repeat.; January 28, 2013 at 6:35 PM
columnist said...: Well that certainly is one way to address your phobia, but not a method I am likely to adopt...to overcome my reluctance* to bungee jump. I don't think it's a fear*, just not something I would find any particular pleasure in attempting. Anyway, I hope your manly exploits won you the prize you were obviously seeking.; January 28, 2013 at 8:16 PM
Hippo said...: A pyrrhic victory leading to the second of my eyewateringly painful divorces. If only the bungie cord had snapped, I’d have stood a better chance with the crocodiles.; January 28, 2013 at 8:27 PM
Mark D. Ruffner said...: Yikes, that video gave me sweaty palms. I also have acrophobia and long ago figured out that it's not the fear of falling, but rather the fear of the impulse to jump — even scarier!; January 28, 2013 at 9:57 PM
Blue said...: We're just back from three days in a freezing New York and though the hotel bed was superbly comfortable it's still good to be back in my own.; January 29, 2013 at 4:51 AM
columnist said...: Mark - yes, I recall your phobia from a comment on an earlier post. Not somewhere you'd visit, methinks.

Blue - I agree completely. It's the biggest downside to travel - not being in your own bed, however lovely the hotel is.; January 29, 2013 at 11:24 AM
columnist said...: Mark - I'm sure this will amuse you...!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturepicturegalleries/9832092/Vertigo-inducing-self-portrait-photographs-by-death-defying-rooftopper-Jun-Ahn.html#?frame=2464286; January 29, 2013 at 6:11 PM
Hippo said...: I realise the photo set was for Mark but I had to sneak a look. Keeping the advice given to all who suffer from vertigo in mind, I avoided looking down by keeping my eyes glued to the very attractive young lady.; January 29, 2013 at 7:05 PM
columnist said...: Hippo - it occurred to me that you would be thrilled by this too!

Attractive she might be, but obviously completely off the wall. Or in her case, roof.; January 29, 2013 at 8:53 PM
Hippo said...: Yes, you are right. Perhaps a bit too clingy for a mistress.; January 29, 2013 at 9:22 PM